A microfiche appendix having 3 microfiche and 216 frames is included herewith and includes a detailed design specification of the present invention.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system for enhancing application processing performance involving read-only access to database tables. More particularly, to a system to enhance execution of complex business transaction applications, such as those performed in telecommunications billing systems, that requires quick access to data stored in a database by placing a portion of the data into RAM memory using a master file and an incremental file.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today""s business data processing systems, business data is stored in relational databases. The performance of these relational databases in accessing data is usually adequate to meet most needs. However, for high performance applications the access to data stored in these relational databases turns into a performance bottleneck and hampers quick retrieval. Solutions have been developed in which data is either cached from the database or simply loaded into memory for access. However, these solutions don""t provide the combination of the flexibility to extract only the data needed and provide updates of modified data in increments.
This is a particular problem in complex business transactions, like those performed in telecommunications billing systems, require access to data stored in a database to validate business rules or to look up reference data. This type of data is mostly static and is not frequently changed. Database access is often the performance bottleneck for high volume data processing.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that allows for quick access to large volumes of static data on a realtime basis and is totally transparent to application programs. In addition, when data changes in a database a method and system is needed to notify application programs of the change and have them access the most up-to-date data.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce database bottlenecks seen by business application programs, by providing fast read-only access to data extracted from a database and loaded in memory.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of accessing a database by placing information extracted from the database into a first data structure in memory. Then the present invention updates the information in memory periodically or when requested when a change in the information occurs in the database by placing the updated information into a second data structure in memory which is linked to the first data structure.
It is a further object of the present invention to seamlessly update data in memory provided to the applications to reflect changes in the database.
It is another object of the present invention to provide significant performance improvement over that seen in direct database access.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a standard interface for application programs to database data.
The above objects can be attained by a system and method that partially or fully extracts data from a database and places the data in RAM for access by application programs. Further, the foregoing objects can be attained by a system and method that updates data in RAM (random access memory), transparent to the application programs, whenever the data changes in the database.
These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.